Turbo Training

Turbo Training

For some, Dark nights = torture in the garage.

Cycling in winter can be a bit hit and miss.  Too cold.  Too wet.  Too dark.  Too icy the roads.

So, to keep a decent level of fitness up during the `off season` we decided to plunge into the world of Turbo training.  With plenty of snow and rain and ice on the roads, it seemed like the only way we could keep fit in preperation for our little ride from one end of the country to the other......

This is my turbo

Now, for those of you who know, sitting in your bike just pedalling and not going anywhere fast isn’t exactly exciting – quite boring in fact.  So some kind of motivation is needed to encourage you to keep going to the Torture Chamber ( garage for me )

If only my garage was as nice a clean and tidy as this - love the image on the wall.

Initially, for me, I used to stick on a live gig of my favourite rock bands like :

That really is Jus in the black top and my arm waving, no really!

Me, Jus and Tony from Terrorvision!!

Or

But the problem is you need to train at varying levels of intensity which watching and listening to rock music doesn’t give you.  You try to have a few minutes recovery but the beat of the song propels you onwards and you soon find yourself pushing the pedals around too hard and killing yourself as you smash your head on the handlebars to the music!

I then took advice from the BikeRadar forum about a little bunch of videos called Sufferfest.

I have now got around 7 of these and boy are they tough.  Very TOUGH.  Most last around an hour and let me tell you, if there isn’t a puddle of sweat on the floor afterwards, you aren’t trying hard enough.  

They have a saying on the site 

and if you want to push yourself to exhaustion I’m sure they have it spot on...

As long as you know its......

There is one big problem with these training videos.  

The amount of effort you put in to a session is very subjective.

Basically, you do this :

A warm up session

Intervals or 

Climbing or

Racing or

A mixture of All

whilst ( supposedly ) watching some pro riders race against each other.

I say supposedly watching - I seem to have my head buried into my handlebars - I don't think I've ever looked at my cassette for so long, thats when I can see through the shower of sweat I'm covered in that stinging my eyes!

Each `session` is done at a perceived effort graded from 1 to 10 so this is where its upto you,

the rider

to judge what flat out at 10/10 is and structure the training around that.

My favourite is Downward Spiral

Sometimes you are standing up out of the pedals which is very interesting as you can’t move the bike around like you would when climbing normally. Plus trying to keep a cadence of around 90-100 stood up quickly saps your legs of all their strength.

I have also been known to dribble on my front wheel 

and

some of the noises coming from my Torture Chamber

have been a bit strange according to my wife!

Some people don’t like them and that’s great.  Maybe I just like to Suffer!

Don't forget, you can all support me and Rick on our little bike ride by donating to our chosen charities on here - www.justgiving.com/teams/cyclemadness